Livelihood diversification, mobile phones and information diversity in Northern Tanzania

Highlights

• We present livelihood diversification as a driver of information diversity.

• We examine livelihoods, phone use, and communication in 4 Maasai communities.

• Qualitative interviews show that phones support rather than transform diverse activities.

• Regression models show that diversification is positively related to information diversity.

Abstract

Throughout the developing world, households are diversifying their livelihood activities to manage risk and improve their lives. Many studies have focused on the material causes and consequences of this diversification. Few, however, have examined how diversifying groups establish new patterns of communication and information exchange with others. This paper examines the relationship between livelihood diversification and information diversity among agro-pastoralist Maasai in northern Tanzania, where new mobile phone use is common. Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis are used to (1) describe how Maasai use phones to manage diverse livelihoods; and (2) assess the relationship between livelihood diversification and measures of information diversity, controlling for other factors. The findings indicate that households use phones in ways that support existing activities rather than transform them and that the relationship between livelihood diversification and information diversity is positive, non-linear, and significant.

Introduction

A longstanding concern within the scholarship on land-use change is livelihood diversification (LD) by smallholder agricultural and pastoralist groups in rural areas (Ellis, 2000b, Barrett et al., 2001). With LD, households and communities pursue diverse economic strategies to manage uncertainty and improve their lives. Much of the research on LD has focused on its material causes and consequences. Implicit in these studies, however, is the notion that as people engage new economic activities, they come into contact with new groups of people – and new types of information.

Information is a critical resource. It is a key form of social capital, a bulwark against uncertainty, and the foundation of decision-making. And as with other resources, access to information varies. Generally, people acquire and evaluate information through their personal experiences and their social networks. For decades, sociologists and business scholars have studied the relationships between social networks, information, and economic outcomes. Studies have found that diverse networks produce diverse information – and that diverse networks and information are associated with a wide range of positive outcomes from wages and productivity to political success and innovation (Aral and Alstyne, 2011, Page, 2008, Granovetter, 1983, Bruggeman, 2016). Despite these observations from the developed world, we are aware of no studies that directly examine the relationship between LD and information diversity (ID) in developing contexts. This is especially conspicuous given the ubiquity of information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially mobile phones, throughout the developing world (Itu, 2013).

Mobile phones, now widespread throughout Africa, have been heralded as transformative new tools for social networking and economic development (Clinton, 2012). However, phone adoption has occurred within contexts where deeply engrained social, cultural and economic norms are resilient leading some to question whether new mobile technologies are merely supportive rather than transformative (Donner and Escobari, 2010, Butt, 2014). From this perspective, it may not be that phone use drives land use – but that land use drives phone use.

With this paper, we seek to contribute to the scholarship on rural, pastoralist livelihoods and land use by examining the relationship between LD and ID in an area where mobile phones are becoming commonplace. Here, LD is an established mechanism by which rural households become variably connected with new groups and new types of information. Alternatively, mobile phones are important new tools to facilitate communication. Following this approach, we use mixed methods to examine how mobile phone-use has been incorporated into diversified pastoralist livelihoods and how LD is associated with diverse modes and types of communication and information exchange. To address these concerns, we focus on four ethnically Maasai, agro-pastoralist communities in northern Tanzania where phone use is widespread and indigenous land use faces many challenges.